


We are the Music Makers

by happinesssdeceit (crescenttwins)



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Music, Drabble, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-30
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-04-06 21:42:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4237656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crescenttwins/pseuds/happinesssdeceit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A music industry!AU where Hide and Kaneki are part of the same cycle of new trainees.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Play On

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr, and I was originally going to write this as my entry for the hidekanesupportgroup contest! But the more I wrote the more I wanted to expand on this, so I'll be drabbling in this 'verse to take a more lighthearted break from the Last Words Soulmate!AU

Hide and Kaneki enter the company at the same time, part of the twelfth cycle of trainees for Root A Entertainment. 

Hide is pretty well known for having a great personality and a warm singing voice, although his dancing is a bit odd at times. He makes people comfortable, laughs and jokes with interviewers and is universally adored for the way he smiles and takes care of others. He draws people’s eyes with his charm and keeps them there with his empathy and kindness.

Kaneki on the other hand confuses people, because he seems so quiet and shy but he’s tops when it comes to vocal dexterity and can sing rock like nobody’s business. His dancing is sharp, militaristic, and no one wants to tell him that they only need to pretend to kick at an invisible enemy when he’s in the zone.

Everyone knows how this is going to go– Hide will be placed in a small vocal group and have a steady career in music until he finds that he’s a better television host and actor; Kaneki will either go solo or be in a band, until one day he snaps and he’s pulled out of the scene in handcuffs.

Except one day they run into each other, and Hide introduces himself and they’re friends. And suddenly Hide is mentioning Kaneki every chance he gets and people are wondering who the heck Kaneki is because he can’t be that dark kid– except he is. And their boss decides that it’s gold, no one will expect it and they’ll take the music scene by storm, and the next day it’s announced that Kaneki Ken and Nagachika Hideyoshi will be debuting as a duo. 

No one expects it to work, but somehow it does. Hide is brilliant at shows, but makes space for Kaneki to deliver dry retorts that are always GIF’ed when the program airs. Kaneki is a brilliant lyricist and dancer, spins words that Hide puts melodies to easily and vice versa. 

They don’t win an award their debut year, much to the disappointment of the boss, but they get attention when people start shipping them and their talent keeps them at the top once they’ve gotten there. Soon enough they’re being chased in the train stations and through malls, and Kaneki grumbles but lets Hide drag him around anyway.

There’s a website where people share pictures of them in public and roleplay, and Hide will never tell but sometimes he RPs himself for the fun of it. He’s gotten a lot of good comments on how realistic he is. Kaneki always steals the good photos and sticks them in a folder on the computer in case someone asks him how he’s doing (he’s learned that people don’t take it well when they have to buy your magazines to see what you look like these days).

People ask them, years later, how in the world they managed to make it work. Because it has worked, the numerous awards lining the shelves and walls can attest to that. 

In response, Hide wraps his arm around Kaneki’s neck loosely and Kaneki laughs for the first time on camera.


	2. Track 01: Press Start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Every band starts with a song.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been changed into a multichapter fic instead of a series, since I think it will be a collection of drabbles more than anything else! Hopefully this will be easier to find. :)

Their first single is written on the floor of a dance studio. Kaneki and Hide huddle together in the corner, trading pages every once in a while to see what the other’s come up with. The thrum of heavy base is ingrained into their ears and beaten into their eyes with the stomping feet of the other trainees, and it slips into their work as well, unnoticed but not unwelcome.

Kaneki refuses to use gibberish English; Hide thinks it’s kind of fun to include.

Because of this difference, the lyrics in the second verse are sloppy. Blue and green inks compete for space and dominance of the verse, hasty lines trying to eradicate the competition from the page.

When they finish, the pages are worn thin around the edges, and Hide laughs and sticks them into his bag to photocopy later. Most of the trainees have headed home, the hour hand on the clock sticking resolutely to the two as if to convince Hide and Kaneki to do the same.

It takes four days to finish writing the song, and by that time no one can tell if it’s any good. The boss wanted their first single to be done by a company songwriter and completed days ago; Hide is constantly rethinking the baseline, because it sounds too familiar; Kaneki hates the lyrics to the second verse. But despite this all, they are done, and the pages are cleaned up and digitized without delay.  

It isn’t until Kaneki gets the music sheets in his hand, fresh off the printer, that he realizes how bizarre it is to not have tiny green faces drawn into the half and whole notes. He pushes it from his mind quickly, plays through the music in his head and sings the chorus whenever he has a quiet moment.

Later, the single will have flopped and the biggest boost in fan activity comes from a GIF set of an angry Kaneki singing “ _We bring danger to you_ ” in accented English while Hide laughs hysterically in the background. If you look closely, you can see Hide nearly lose his mic before saving it (and the audience’s ears) from bouncing off the stage.

And somewhere along the line, there’s a misunderstanding in the company as to what it is the fans really want. It is corrected eventually, but in the interim, Kaneki is asked to frown in all the official band images for the first single.

As a result of this misunderstanding, people will ask Kaneki what it is that made his mind change about the band, when he is clearly so unhappy in the beginning.  They will ask him what made him stay, when so many bands would have split.  

Kaneki won’t be sure what they’re talking about, will glance at Hide who will shrug as well. And he will answer that his happiness in the band has always outweighed the unhappinesses of personal difference. And he will be starting a new round of rumor, but he won’t know that for a while yet.

 


	3. Chapter 3

 Someone up the chain decides the cute unexpected singing duo bit is nice, but to really hit the market Kaneki and Hide need to up the sex appeal. And it’s not that the pair don’t have a niche already– Hide brings in the older women and younger audiences, Kaneki the post grunge teenagers. It’s just that none of these groups pour money into new CDs and merchandise, and it could be so much _better_. 

In the end, someone decides the first step is changing their stage outfits, and Kaneki stares at their clothing coordinator blankly.

“What is this.” He says, even as Hide starts changing into his new bag of clothes.

“You’ll be an excellent sex rocker,” their manager says back monotonously. He’s their third so far in ten months, and he certainly seems promising.

Kaneki looks at it again, this tight black outfit with no lower back.

Hide finally sees it, sticks his hand through the hole, and whistles. “You’re going to be cold.” And Hide’s outfit is a much more reasonable ensemble for the late fall weather, one that has him in a vest that covers his neck and strange bits of armor. More somber colors than he would expect (greys and black), but certainly more– weather friendly. 

“We’re toughening up Hide’s image,” their manager says when Kaneki’s gaze swings back to him. 

Of course they are.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So in that music!AU where Kaneki and Hide are part of an unexpected musical duo, it was mentioned earlier that Hide RPs as himself on the fan forums (and he gets an awful lot of compliments on how good he is).

Sometime after Hide’s been established as **the**  Hide RPer, there’s an anon callout post saying that he’s OOC. Because, Hide reads as he scrolls down the page of screenshots, in all of his posts he acts far more affectionately towards the Kaneki RPers than any others. The anon argues that he is definitely a HideKane shipper and the _real_  Hide would never act this way.

It’s a strange moment, Hide thinks as he pokes Kaneki’s sleeping body, when someone accuses you of being not like yourself. Kaneki swipes at his hand half-heartedly, curling into the cushions of the couch of their recording studio. 

And part of Hide takes it as a challenge, because he has a certain amount of pride in being the most cuddly and affectionate. So the next time someone asks for a photo, he bumps Kaneki with his hip. The look of surprise on Kaneki’s face is almost as shocking as the callout post was. And the next time Hide slings an arm over Kaneki’s shoulder, he smiles twice as brightly when he feels the other lean against him.

And then, then it becomes so much less about that anon and more about Kaneki. So he finds himself draping over Kaneki’s back, running for hugs on variety shows, leaning in closer than before to crack a joke beneath his hand.

Because how could he ever linger on some faceless person when Kaneki starts cracking half-smiles the moment before they collide, moves closer so that their clothes brush against one another.

The internet explodes, because affection and smiles are the currency of fandom. 

But Hide won’t notice for a long while.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In that music!AU where Hide and Kaneki are a two-man group, there comes a point where the company wants to diversify their activities.

In that music!AU where Hide and Kaneki are a two-man group, there comes a point where the company wants to diversify their activities. Hide is good humored enough that a host of talkshows will invite him to be a semi-regular, popular enough to keep him a seat and likeable enough to bring in a whole new fan following.

It’s harder to find activities for Kaneki, who has built his image to be distant and unapproachable with slight disdain. But he is quite physically strong, and so they sign him up for the pilot of an athletics challenge show (half in hope and half in resignation, certain that this is just another stopgap before they have to throw in the towel and be satisfied letting the man write music). 

To nearly everyone’s surprise, Kaneki not only wins the challenge but is the fan favorite. Ratings go up every time he appears on screen, and their fansites explode with GIFs of him flexing and destroying his co-stars in the challenges. In the fifth episode Kaneki forgets a towel and pulls his shirt up to wipe at his face; the night the episode airs, “Kaneki abs” starts trending.

Hide sends Kaneki his comments for each episode, makes sure to tape the screenshot of Kaneki’s abs to the kitchen refrigerator when someone tweets it at them. Underneath, Kaneki pastes an edit of Hide in a dress; it looks so natural that Hide signs the picture and tweets the artist his compliments.

For the show’s hundredth episode, the producer of Kaneki’s show invites Hide to come as a guest in a partner challenge, and the fandom sees a whole other side of determined, athletic Kaneki. For his fans that started with the show, that are used to him ducking or avoiding the claps on the back, Hide’s running hug to start Kaneki’s segment is a splash of water to the face. Their older fans console them with a video compilation of Hidekane’s best concert hugs.

There’s a brief moment of silence at the beginning of the episode when the camera catches Kaneki and Hide chattering in the background as they set up the obstacle course; to this day no one knows if it was a mistake on the producer’s part or not. 

And at the end of the episode, Hide and Kaneki come in second– Kaneki’s lowest rank in the history of the show– and to everyone’s surprise, Kaneki just pulls Hide in to ruffle his hair when the other male tries to apologize for destroying his win streak. 

**Author's Note:**

> More drabbles that fit into this verse to come! Comments are adored. :)


End file.
